Chapter 196 — The Solitude of the Invincible
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
A silence fell over the temple.
"Imperial Teacher Jingping comes bearing his might; of the eight Pillars of State he has brought four, and there are the two Grand Generals, Champion and Huaihua, and the Duke of Wei besides, with several first-rank ministers very likely among them as well. His momentum is fierce. To meet him head-on is certain to fail. " Ma Lianshan, Minister of the Grand Administrative Office, said, "Forgive my bluntness, all of you, but in a clash of the jianghu, the sects always win, while in war upon the battlefield, the state of Jingping holds the advantage.
That being so, why should we take our weakness and strike at their strength? Why not take our strength and strike at their weakness? " Everyone nodded. The Palace Master of Liqing spoke up suddenly. "This puts me in mind of that battle more than two hundred years ago.
In those days the masters of the Combat-Arts school were still many, a hundred flowers blooming in rivalry, strong enough to contend with the Sword-Flying school and the Spellcraft school.
Back then the Combat-Arts school and the Sword-Flying school fought one another to the death day after day, and fought the Spellcraft school to the death as well — arrogant beyond all words. But now look at the Combat-Arts school: what masters remain? Where have they gone? " Silence fell over the assembly. Most of the Combat-Arts school's masters had died in a single great disputation — a disputation with Imperial Teacher Jingping. From that day the Combat-Arts school never recovered; in recent years it had begun to merge with the other schools, and few cultivated pure combat arts any longer. In that disputation, the Combat-Arts school had been crippled by Imperial Teacher Jingping alone.
The Palace Master of Liqing said calmly, "How like that time is the present.
Back then the Combat-Arts school thought itself the first under heaven, thought it would crush the Sword-Flying school utterly in that disputation, and many of its masters went to the capital to challenge Imperial Teacher Jingping. And then?
" She swept her gaze around the room. "What if we play by the jianghu's rules with Imperial Teacher Jingping this time, and meet the very same end?
" The man in the bronze mask was silent a moment, then said, "Palace Master Qiu, what do you propose?
" The Palace Master of Liqing raised her hand. "Imperial Teacher Jingping expects us to play by the jianghu's rules with him. So we shall not play by the jianghu's rules at all. We fix the place first, and when he arrives, we fall on him in a pack and beat him to death on the spot!
" Her hand chopped down, and she said coldly, "Jingping has gone from a tiny state to what it is today, and more than half the credit rests on Imperial Teacher Jingping. He is already a myth, revered by the civil and military ministers of the court.
If he wished to rebel, one wave of his arm and the emperor would have to abdicate!
And if the emperor did not abdicate, it would mean death for him and the extermination of his clan! If Imperial Teacher Jingping dies, the dragons have no head, and the state of Jingping is no longer so hard to deal with. Therefore we must stop at nothing — we cannot play by the jianghu's rules. " "That.
. . Palace Master Qiu speaks truly. " The sect masters in Luoguang Temple voiced their agreement one after another. Only a few felt that this violated the jianghu's rules and were somewhat uneasy at heart, yet none spoke out against it. Laying siege to Imperial Teacher Jingping — and last time, the Three Elders ambushing him. When the Three Elders ambushed Imperial Teacher Jingping, he had stood amid ten thousand soldiers with countless masters at his side, and so that stroke of the Three Elders' had not truly broken the jianghu's rules. This time, however, the rules of the jianghu were being torn to shreds in earnest and trampled underfoot.
"Once this deed is done, the rules are broken, and the harm will pass down ten thousand years.